


coup de foudre

by oonaseckar



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Coup de foudre, Crush at First Sight, Idiots in Love, Love at First Sight, Lust at First Sight, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-20
Updated: 2020-02-07
Packaged: 2021-02-16 03:23:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21501067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oonaseckar/pseuds/oonaseckar
Summary: There's something delightful about a middle-agedcoup de foudre.Unless you're one of the afflicted. Peter's taking it philosophically. Chris Argent is less amused.Chris and Peter.Chris and Peter, need I say more.  /touches finger to hot stovetsssssssssssss.   Burning hot, man.
Relationships: Chris Argent/Peter Hale
Comments: 1
Kudos: 34





	1. i hate love

**Author's Note:**

> Chapter title from Neil Gaiman.

It happens at the Hale house, when Peter has Kate by the throat. What he says - it's unexpected - he says the Hales owe him a _mate_. He won't accept blood-money. Only that. 

And what Chris says? "I'll never give you my sister, or my daughter, you maniac."

And then Peter: "Who said anything about either of them?

Well, Chris would not deny it: from that first glance, he has been... attracted. Not willingly, mind you.

And then, there's how Chris kills Kate, after Peter lets her go. Peter looks like someone just handed him a bouquet, a blushing breathless teenager. "Oh, you're ruthless. _Darling_."

And something about that endearment just does it for Chris.

Chris tries to tell himself - with the agreement hammered out, held to it by the Hales -- that it's a pragmatic business arrangement. A _morganatic_ marriage, like Russian royalty, a debt owed and paid. And Peter lets him. An alliance that spares bloodshed. It's one way of looking at it.

Veronica is furious about the divorce. She doesn't let go easily. Frankly, she's out to kill them both. Peter just tells Chris to wind up his affairs, make his arrangements, and move into the Hale house. Is Peter a lawyer? Yes. A wolf _and_ a lawyer. Ye Gods. A few witchy friends of Peter's help to make the house habitable.

Peter is sane around him. Sane, or as Derek puts it, 'San- _er_.' Derek is off anyhow, courting the Stilinski kid.

And thus, Chris, plighting his troth the night before the wolves' handfasting ceremony, out in the woods: "I'm a middle-aged man. I have _business investments_. I have an ex-wife, a daughter, I've never lain down with a guy – even a _human_ guy – in my life. And I haven't been repressing anything. There was nothing to _repress_."

Chris thinks -- even at this point, he still thinks -- it's about a single little screw. 

But on the night, after the wedding -- both of them the worse for wolfsbane gin, incredulously tottering and amazed at themselves -- Peter puts him right on that. 

"You don't owe me a _fuck_ , what did you think? You owe me a _mate_. That covers foot-rubs. And weekend breaks, and rows when I've had a couple too many, and embarrassing you with the same story told three times to your business colleagues. It covers _sex_ , yes. And it also covers picking you up from the station when your train's three hours late, and emergency room trips when you're not as handy with the barbecue as you think you are. It means the _work,_ of love."

Peter is an alpha wolf: he could kill Chris. It would be oh so very simple. Well, maybe it would be simpl _er_. But he won't. Chris is a hunter. He should want to kill Peter. 

But he doesn't.

A look at each other blots out the pain. And that should be beautiful, Chris thinks, but it _isn't_ , it's ugly, ugly. Nothing should be able to make him forget the pain, the loss, even for a moment. It's disloyalty to the dead. But still, it does. Bare facts are often ugly.

And when Chris's waistline goes to pot, and his hormones run riot, and Peter tells him _the one thing_ he's left out up until now, detailing the conditions of their royal alliance, their truce between warring clans?

Chris he thinks he might die. Barring all other considerations, he's too old for babies. Look at Allison! College, now! He's about ready for _grandbabies_ , he and Veronica! "I'm not just a man. I'm a _middle_ - _aged_ man. I'm too old for a baby! What will Allison say?"

[An aside: Allison knits for the baby. The pack think she's lost her mind, but... Well, she's a crafter, a knitter. Has her own Folksy account, of course. Nothing stops a knitter. It's any excuse.]


	2. a truth universally acknowledged

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Easy, to eye each other across crowded rooms, to feel that pull of attraction.
> 
> Not so easy, to create a marriage.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title is Jane Austen.

Sometimes when Chris arranges to meet Peter, he'll spot him across the room, his smooth youthful face, and feel like a dirty old man, a pervert chasing a pretty young thing. Then, of course, remind himself that he only has a little over ten years on Hale. That Peter is old enough for a wife and kids. Has buried a wife and kid. Had a wife, and a kid: before. Before Kate put paid to that.

He's lost some things himself, and you could say Hales are to blame, one way or another. But though Allison's dating a wolf, who only exists by grace of Peter's – hopefully – temporary insanity... Well, she's still alive. Peter's kid, his wife, they're not coming back from college, or an unsuitable relationship and frosty ex-spousal interactions. Not like Allison, not like Veronica. Not ever.

It makes it awkward when anyone mentions marriage or kids, when the subject comes up. After a dinner party where Chris's clients insist on taking them through a million family photos on their phones, Chris tries, without actually saying it, to apologize.

Chris says, ''Sorry' seems completely pointless.'

Peter says, 'It's all right. I know it wasn't you: I blame Kate, not you. I never think about it in connection with you."

Chris doesn't have to be a werewolf to hear the lie in his voice.

They're lying in bed. 'Anyway, don't I have a child myself again?," Peter says, stretching back easy after love, so beautiful it makes Chris breathless. "By proxy. I hear enough about Allison's troubles – when she's not hunting or studying – to feel like I'm halfway responsible.for her.'


End file.
